In optical interferometry, this approach is often mandatory: the
paucity of apertures (\(N \sim 2-5\) ) and baselines make the content of
a direct (Fizeau) image of limited value.
Information rich images can be reconstructed after extraction of the
complex visibility function from the \(u,v\)  plane, but only with a
large (\(N > 10\) ) number of apertures like in radio-interferometry, or
after using image synthesis.
The optical image reconstruction known as pupil densification that is
used in hypertelescopes [1]} does provide an
alternative, but again, only becomes compelling if a large number of
apertures is used [2]}.
But even when an image can be reconstructed from optical
interferometry measurements, e.g. the images of the binary Capella by
[3]}, the intensity map of the surface of
Altair by [4]} or the spectacular images of the
disk eclipsing \(\epsilon \)  Aurigae [5]},
quantitative characteristics of the sources can only be deduced from
the fit of the interferometric data by parametric models.
In the case of a marginally resolved binary star, precise measurements
of angular separation, orientation and contrast, with confidence
intervals, deduced from a model-fit of complex visibilities carry much
more scientific value than an image of “blurry blobs”.
